Australian Movies - Rare Finds

Central Station

On Friday night I stumbled on one of those rare occurrences on TV - the showing of a an Australian movie. Yes, it wasn't shown in prime time, and it wasn't a recent movie. However, it was still enjoyable seeing names that became familiar for their other movie and TV roles starring in the movie. "Mama's Gone a Hunting" was made in 1975 and starred Judy Morris, Gerard Kennedy and Carmen Duncan.

The Sundowners

What fascinated me most about this movie was the locations used for filming it. The Sydney Opera House, Central Station, and the Sydney Boulevard Hotel all featured prominently in it. The Sydney Opera House has just celebrated its 40th  birthday, and was used for the exterior scenes, though I found out its interior scenes were actually filmed inside the Seymour Centre. The Sydney Boulevard Hotel is still standing, though I imagine the staff uniforms and wallpaper have changed over the years. The grand sandstone Central Station is still the hub of train transport in Sydney. It is interesting to see the Dining Room, hand operated destination board, and shops that are no longer there featured in the movie.

Eureka Stockade

With a bit if searching through the TV guides, several other Australian movies can be found. "The Sundowners" (1960) was on Gem on Saturday afternoon and told the story of a fathers desire to continue to sheep-herd around the country and his wife and sons desire to settle down. Its interesting to see how a lot of the early Australian movies felt they had to have overseas actors in in the main roles - this movie starred Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov with Chips Rafferty just in a supporting role.

"Eureka Stockade" was on Gem on Sunday morning. This movie tells the story of Peter Lalor (played by Chips Rafferty) and the gold miners' rebellion of 1854 at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria. Even though the interior scenes were filmed in Ealing Studios in England, it is interesting to note that the exterior scenes were filmed near Singleton NSW and not at Ballarat.